I’m Getting Out
[This is a guest post]
I’m an anesthesiologist who has been in private practice for about 11 years. I started to realize in residency that medicine didn’t make me happy, but I kept thinking things would get better once I broke out into private practice. I’m still waiting. My partners are a bunch of greedy, backstabbing sharks. I look at my patients as lawsuits waiting to happen. I don’t enjoy Big Brother Government looking over my shoulder and telling me how to do my job.
To further add to my discontent, three years ago, my hospital had an outbreak of hepatitis C cases. The outbreak was traced back to a surgical tech with a drug problem. She was stealing fentanyl from our anesthesia carts when we weren’t in the room, injecting herself, and replacing the dirty syringes, which she refilled with saline. Two of my patients were infected and both of them sued. One had a particularly nasty attorney who managed to put me through hell. The experience nearly broke my spirit, certainly as a doctor, but also as a caring human being.
I can’t (and won’t) do it anymore. Following the ordeal, I wrote a fictional account of my story. It’s at the stage where it’s ready to be published.
I guess everything happens for a reason. I’ve discovered that I really enjoy writing, and have been told that I’m quite good at it. If my book achieves reasonable success, which I anticipate it will, I am OUT. And I will NEVER regret it.
